This month in KidVenture, our kindergarten – 5th graders will be learning about contentment.
We define contentment as “deciding to be happy with what you’ve got.”
In other words, you can choose to be happy because of what God has actually given you. You can choose to shift your focus away from what you don’t have and toward what God desires to do with the life you have. When you trust Him with your life, you become more focused on being grateful for everything He’s already given to you.
The Bible has a lot to say about contentment. This month, we’re going to unpack several of those moments where people learned something about contentment as well as some key principles about how we can live our lives focused on trusting God no matter what.
See, when it comes right down to it, contentment is a heart issue. It can’t be solved by getting the thing that’s off-limits, the thing that someone else has, or even more of a good thing you already have. In other words, contentment happens when we place our trust in the One who is able to meet our needs each day.
When you teach kids to see their life as a gift from God it sets them up for a life of contentment and fulfillment. There will be no reason to be distracted by what others have, or what’s off limits, or what we had in the past. And when all of us really trust God, we will be content with exactly what He has put in our box for today and won’t worry about the future.
Each week this month we’ll tackle a new principle about contentment summed up in these 5 “Bottom Lines”:
1. When you focus on God, He can help you be content.
2. When you focus on what you don’t have, it can make you miserable.
3. When you focus on what you used to have, you can miss what you have now.
4. When you focus on stuff, you can miss what matters.
5. When you focus on God, you don’t have to worry.
Our Memory Verse is Philippians 4:12b (NIrV), “I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough.”
When Paul wrote this, he was under house arrest. He could have complained about not being free, but instead he focused on God and found peace in the middle of a difficult circumstance. Our kids can discover this same peace when they trust God with what they have and don’t have.